How To Remove Homegroup and Network Icons From File Explorer in Windows 10

Homegroup and Network are two much less used icons that seem fair enough to remove so we can get a much cleaner File Explorer. If you don’t like the idea having less used icons cluttered in your Navigation Pane in File Explorer, here is how you can get rid of them.

3. Once the business of the ownership is taken care of, go to the right-side pane and create a new DWORD System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree and keeps the value as default which is 0.

That’s it. The change takes place immediately. If you open File Explorer now, you won’t see HomeGroup icon there anymore.

Remove Network icon

1. Fire up Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}

2. Again, take ownership of this registry, following the steps described at above.

3. Once you have the ownership, go to the right-side pane and create a new DWORD System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree and keep the value 0 untouched.

That’s it. The change takes place immediately. You won’t see Network icon next time you open File Explorer.

Bonus tip

Windows 10 added 2 new icons in the Navigation Pane in File Explorer, known as Quick Access and OneDrive. Even though you shouldn’t be removing them as they are tightly integrated in Windows and are indeed very useful and handy, you still can follow the similar steps to remove them.

To remove OneDrive, simply go to the following registry location and change the value of System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree DWORD to 0.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{018D5C66-4533-4307-9B53-224DE2ED1FE6}

Removing Quick Access is a bit more complicated. Leave comments if you are interested.